If I tree falls in the forest, does it make a sound?
If I write a blog post about a guy who doesn’t use computers, does it matter?
Timeless questions, really.
Mike Mehaffie doesn’t use computers. Seriously, if you email him, you are actually emailing his wife, who will get the message to him. He hand writes letters, and then his wife types them into the computer and sends them.
And despite that glaring difference in personal preference (I don’t not use computers…) he still makes it easily into my list of most influential men in my life.
If I’m not mistaken, the first year that Mike Mehaffie directed the Santa Cruz Summer Project with Campus Crusade for Christ coincided with the year I was potty-trained. He’s been doing this a while. And in 2005, I got to see what all the hype was about, by joining the staff team of the SCSP.
I was not disappointed. Mike has that summer project absolutely optimized (from a natural perspective) for maximum spiritual growth of the students attending.
We butted heads a bit that summer, don’t get me wrong.
Most of the issue related to some additional potty training that Mike had to help with in my life, if I’m honest. And while we still to this day agree to disagree on certain issues, it was Mike Mehaffie’s influence that seriously helped me to grow between summer 2005 and summer 2009, when I had the opportunity to go back to Santa Cruz (this time with a wife and child!)
I’d never been treated as an equal by a man my father’s age, before Mike Mehaffie. But he was not just talking a good game when he said that he valued my opinion. He really did. When he confronted me, it was clearly done out of concern for me, and as a result I grew.
I haven’t even touched on the value and example of Sharon Mehaffie, and my wife (and thousands of other women) would agree when I say that they have learned much from watching her and experiencing life alongside her. I learned what to look for in a wife, for sure.
If you are interested in supporting the Mehaffies, please feel free to click here, and tell them I sent you.
Sharon, could you print a copy of this post out and hand it to Mike for me?